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HUMOR, HARDINESS, AND HEALTHi

Robert F. Priest, Ph.D. Visiting Scientist

Department of Behavioral Science and Leadership United States Military Academy

West Point, NY 10996

Paul Bartone, Ph.D. Director, Leader Development Research Center

Department of Behavioral Science and Leadership United States Military Academy

West Point, NY 10996

Abstract

Personality factors, including humor, can reduce the effect of stress on symptoms of poor health. One personality factor that has shown promise is hardiness (Kobasa ,1979; Maddi & Kobasa, 1984; Bartone, 1989a, 1995). Persons who have a high degree of hardiness do not react as much to stress with symptoms of poor health. Self report measures of humor [warm humorous style, competent humorous style (Craik, et al, 1996), use of humor to cope with stress, reputation for clowning], hardiness, stress, and health were obtained from 77 female and 190 male freshmen students enrolled in introductory psychology. Gender differences in humor, hardiness, and health were notable. Consistent with the results of other studies, men were more likely to have been “class clowns” and rate their “competent humor style” higher, even though women rate themselves as high as men do on warm humorous style. Hardiness is positively related to having a warm humorous style, and to health among men. Among men, warm humorous style is associated with health.

Note: The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors only and do not represent the official policies of the U.S. Army, The U.S. Military Academy, or any of its Departments. This research was supported in part by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Social and Behavioral Sciences. i We wish to thank Major J. George, Dept. of BS&L, West Point for contributions to this project, and also several anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

9 July 2001 11AM Humor, hardiness, & Health 1

Humor, Hardiness, and Health*

Robert Priest and Paul Bartone Department of Behavioral Science & Leadership,

US Military Academy, West Point NY

•Presented at the Annual Conference of the international Society for Humor Studies •University of Maryland, July 6-9, 2001

•The opinions expressed in this paper do not represent the official position of any US Army Agency


Research Background

Hardy personality research involves – Commitment, control, challenge – Hardiness fosters stress resistance

Humor research – Martin: Coping humor buffers stress – West Point: Cadets using coping humor survive

cadet basic training better.


Research Questions

Confirmatory: – Do hardy cadets have better health?

– Do cadets with a good sense of humor have better health?

Exploratory: – What is the role of clowning and

complaining about offensive jokes in health and stress appraisal?


Methods

77 female, 190 male freshmen surveyed Questionnaire measured:

– Hardiness – Humor – Stress – Symptoms – Health status and health system use


Hardiness Theory

Based on existential personality theory, Maddi & Kobasa (1984)

Commitment--belief that life and work is worthwhile

Control--belief that one can plan and make it work

Challenge--Enjoys change in routine Bartone (1995) developed reliable 15Q survey.


Effects of Hardiness

Low hardy people have symptoms proportional to stress level

High hardy people react less to stress Hardiness studied in students, bus drivers,

patients, athletes, soldiers in the Gulf War, peacekeeping forces.


Humor measures

Warm Humor --(4Q)*, – I have a good sense of humor – I can maintain group morale thru humor

Competent Humor--(3Q)* – I am very good at making clever retorts – I can tell long, complex anecdotes

Re: stress past weeks, make jokes about it. Reputation as “class clown” in past

Feels free to complain about offensive jokes *(Craik et.al., 1996)


Perceived stress

Academic stress – Academic – Time Schedule – Overall stress

Social & Family stress – Social and relationships – Family

Responses range from 1 “very low” to 5 “very high”


Symptoms

32 items, for example: – colds, back pain, allergies, skin rashes – headaches, trouble sleeping, upset stomache – loss of appetite, overly tired, joint injury

Responses range from

– 1 “not at all” to – 4 “very often”

Mean score over all items


Health

Five questions – Describe health status: excellent (0) to poor(3) – # times on sick call, this year – # times on profile, this year – # weeks on profile, this year – # times hospitalized, this year.

High scores indicate poor health


Results

Gender differences in – humor – hardiness, stress, symptoms and health

Correlations between – Humor and Hardiness – Humor and Stress – Humor and Health – Hardiness and Health


Warning!

Management wishes to apologize in advance for the complexity of the following results.


Mean scores on humor

Mean Male Female Warm humor 4.1 4.2 Competent humor 3.5 3.8* Jokes re stressful situations 2.7 2.5 Reputation as "class clown" 2.8 2.2* Complain re offensive jokes 3.7 3.7

*p <.05

•High agreement =5, low agreement =1


Gender and humor

Men and women = – Warm humor

– Jokes about stress

– Can complain about offensive joke

Men higher – Competent humor

– Class clown

These 5 variables inter-correlate differently for men and women.


Mean scores on Hardiness, stress, & health

Male Female Hardiness 35.4 36.3 Academic stress 4.1 4.4* Social & family stress 2.9 3.0 Symptoms 1.6 1.7* Poor health -0.1 0.2*

*p <.05 •Highest hardiness = 60, lowest =0


Gender, hardiness, stress & health

Men and women = – Hardiness – Social & family stress

Women higher in – Academic stress – Symptoms – Poor health


Humor and hardiness

Correlations with hardiness MALE FEMALE

Warm humor .27* .33* Competent humor .14 .14 Jokes re stressful situations .10 .23* Reputation as "class clown" .05a -.29* Complain re offensive jokes .24* .05 *p <.05 a male and female rs not =, p<.05


Hardiness correlates with

Positive R – Warm Humor M + F – Can complain M – Stress joking F

Hardiness has

different functions in the humor of men and women

Negative R – Class clown F


Comment on last slide

Hardy cadets have a warm sense of humor- – makes theoretical sense – not due to response bias

Hardiness has different effects on

the way men and women use or react to clowning, or offensive joke telling.


Humor and stress appraisal

Correlations with social and family stress

Male Female

Warm humor .07 -.07 Competent humor .27* -.06 Jokes re stressful situations .03 -.05 Reputation as "class clown" .18* .24* Complain re offensive jokes .18* -.14

*p <.05 a male and female rs not =, p<.05


Humor and Social Stress

Social stress is highest for class clowns, M & F

Social stress is high for M with competent humor, not for F

Social stress is high for M who can complain about offensive jokes, but not for F


Clowning & Social Stress

Male & female clowns report above average social

and family stress: Why?

Clowns may be the target of peer pressure.

Maybe clowns joke a lot with parents.


Humor and academic stress

None of the five humor variables correlate

significantly with academic stress, either for

males or females.

Do cadets need to learn how to laugh at

academic stress?


Humor and health

Correlation with Poor Health Male Female

Warm humor -.15 a * .16 Competent humor .01 .10 Jokes re stressful situations .03 .21 Reputation as "class clown" -.07 .13 Complain re offensive jokes -.16* -.07



Humor and Health (2)

M with warm humor have good health-- the opposite seems true in F

M who feel free to complain about offensive jokes have better health.

None of the humor variables relate to symptoms.


Hardiness and Health

Correlation with Hardiness

Symptoms Poor health

Female -.31* -.06 Male -.29* -.16*



Stress and health Correlation with Academic stress

Male Female Symptoms -.08 .14 Poor health -.17* .14 a


•Note: no significant correlations between social stress and health.

•The theory assumes that high stress is associated with poor health.


Hospitalization and academic stress

Female MaleAcademicstressgroup

%Hospitalized

N %Hospitalized

N

Lowest 33 3 19 372nd 5 21 13 473rd 14 22 9 33

Highest 16 31 7 72Total 13 77 11 189


Stress and health for high and low hardiness groups Bartone & Priest (2001) showed that stress

correlates strongly with symptoms for low-hardy females, but not for high-hardy females.

I.e., Hardiness protects women from the ill effects of stress.


Low stress, poor health males Why?

Unique to this sample Too little stress or challenge in a person’s life can

lead to boredom and does not stimulate good performance.

Poor health may cause lowering stress by lowering

expectations --- (the Alfred E Neuman, “What me worry?”, effect.)


Confirmations of other research

Sex differences in humor and health Hardiness works for some groups not for

others. Some types of humor relate to better health


Other findings not supported

Coping humor works for cadets in summer training, but not in the academic year

Low stress is not usually related to poor health, except in this sample of males.


Puzzle

Why is it that only female class clowns seem at greater risk for poor health ?

– Perhaps the social acceptance of male clowns

makes the consequences of playing the role less dangerous.


Future research

Need more detailed information on class clown histories, and confronting objectionable humor.

Need longitudinal follow up with actual health visits.

Need meta-analysis to evaluate humor-health literature for clues.


Conclusions

Moderate support for the effect of hardiness

and warm humor on health was found.

The relation between social stress and

clowning is worth further exploration.

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